hey have you guys seen the Jennifer Lawrence mop movie?

On getting out of a movie slump, and also Al Pacino being hot

Back when this newsletter began (in 2021, wow), I wrote about a little practice I call Mental Health Movie Night. It’s simple: I watch a movie. The only thing is that it really has to be something I’m watching for me. It has to be something I can totally escape into, and ideally something that I won’t be able to stop thinking about. And lately…well, I’ve been watching a lot of things that don’t qualify for Mental Health Movie Night at all. While you know I’m a Star Wars appreciator, I would never in a million years choose a Star Wars film for Mental Health Movie Night (it might be part of your MHMN—that’s the beauty and entire point of it! It’s gotta be about YOU!). But that’s most of what I’ve been watching lately. I also watched some movies with my kid, which were fun to see but were not really for me. And I watched Ricky Stanicky. Please don’t ask the obvious question (which is, for the record, “Kerry, why did you choose that film?”), just know that John Cena was giving 110% but it still wasn’t enough. I needed a movie for me, and I didn’t want it to be something I’d heard a million opinions on.

And so I chose Joy, the 2015 David O. Russell film starring Jennifer Lawrence. I guess I’m a fan David O. Russell’s work, sort of…I liked I Heart Huckabees when I saw it in college. I really enjoyed Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle (which I still maintain is good if you view it as a fun movie instead of as an Oscar nominee—I love it when Jennifer Lawrence talks about microwaves). And I love Jennifer Lawrence so much. I truly think she’s one of the best actresses of this generation and I hope she keeps doing interesting things.

But I didn’t see Joy when it came out. I didn’t even know anything about it. It kind of felt like, culturally, we ignored this one. I’m always interested in the point when society decides they’re no longer into the work of a popular director. Maybe we can call this the Vanilla Sky point—up until Vanilla Sky, Cameron Crowe was on top of the world. And then, collectively, everyone was like, “oh, no thanks.” And he hasn’t gotten back there since (despite the fact that Elizabethtown is enormously entertaining yes I will die on this hill). Is that what happened with Joy? Were we just like, “I don’t care to watch this Jennifer Lawrence mop movie” and then we all pretended it didn’t exist?

I really thought this would be the film to get me out of my movie slump, but it wasn’t, for reasons I can’t even fully articulate. On paper, I should love this movie because I love a big, loose, tonally discordant thing with a million actors. But…okay, should I stop and tell you what this movie is about? Because I think that will help.

It’s about Jennifer Lawrence inventing a mop.

She’s a single mom in a big, messy family. She has two kids, only one of whom is part of the story but I guess they needed to say she had two so you know she’s really busy. Her ex-husband lives in her basement. Her mom (Virginia Madsen) lives with her, too, and watches soap operas all day from bed. The soap opera device felt very Twin Peaks and I was happy to see it, but unfortunately it disappeared about halfway through, which is a theme in this movie. Her dad is Robert DeNiro and he and Virginia Madsen don’t get along. Her grandmother is Diane Ladd and she narrates the story for maybe the first third, then her narration disappears, then she dies and starts narrating again briefly (Hollis walked in at this point and was like, “Is the dead grandma telling this story?” and I was like, “You know as much about this as I do”). She also has a half-sister who’s jealous of her.

Joy is basically Reba McEntire—a single mom who works two jobs, loves her kids and never stops, with gentle hands and the heart of a fighter, she’s a surviiiiivoooooor (sorry for YOU if you don’t know that song). But you know what happens to those gentle hands? They get CUT on GLASS from a BROKEN WINE BOTTLE on ISABELLA ROSSELLINI’S DEAD HUSBAND’S BOAT. Oh, did I forget to mention that Robert DeNiro is dating Isabella Rossellini now? Forgive me; there’s a lot happening in this movie.

Ladies, you know how sometimes you get serious glass injuries in your hands from cleaning up a broken wine bottle on Isabella Rossellini’s dead husband’s boat and then that sparks an invention? We’ve all been there. From this universal experience comes the conceit of this film: Joy is an inventor. She’s creative. She’s gonna make a mop like you’ve never seen, one that has a very long continuous loop and wrings itself out and can be tossed in the washing machine so you never again have to cut yourself cleaning up glass shards on a boat.

This character is loosely based on a real person, also named Joy, who really did invent this mop, and that part I find fascinating. My mop has the little plastic wringing-out device and I can put it in the washing machine. I’d say I’ll think of Jennifer Lawrence every time I mop but frankly I don’t mop enough. I use the wet Swiffers. Now you know my secret shame.

The rest of the movie is full of Joy’s various victories and setbacks with this mop. Bradley Cooper shows up for a little but, but, I ask, to what end? He has very little to do. Joy takes one step forward and two steps back over and over—she gets the mops on TV, but then they don’t sell. She gets herself on TV, then she runs into manufacturing problems. Her sister sucks. Her grandma dies and starts narrating Joy’s life from beyond the grave (hate it when that happens). She declares bankruptcy. But then she remembers that she’s a mop-inventing girlboss and she confronts the lying manufacturer and somehow winds up winning. We flash-forward to the future and she’s now helping other moms make their inventions a reality.

I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why this movie wasn’t clicking with me. To be fair, I watched it over the course of three nights, as is my way, which probably isn’t the ideal viewing circumstance. I hate when people say “what’s the point?” about a movie, because what’s the point of any work of art? Am I supposed to be learning a lesson? This is a movie, not an episode of Sesame Street. But I struggled to find a consistent, lasting feeling here. At the end I was just like, “You know what, good for her.”

And so my movie slump continued. Until…And Justice For All. The ellipses is part of the title, but I don’t think I’ll keep that up. Please, filmmakers, I beg of you, stop putting ellipses in your titles.

I watched this because on Al Pacino’s birthday a couple of weeks ago, some film account I follow on Instagram posted a still of him in this movie. I don’t want to say it stopped me in my tracks, but I metaphorically lowered my glasses and clutched my hand to my chest. Do you remember the “who was hotter: young Al Pacino or young Robert DeNiro” debate from last year-ish? I was firmly in the young Robert DeNiro camp. Couldn’t even imagine caring about young Al Pacino. Well, well, well, how the tables have turned because I’m now convinced young Al Pacino was the hottest man alive, and it’s all because of this movie.

Directed by Norman Jewison (Moonstruck), And Justice for All packs several movies into one movie. It’s a crime procedural. It’s a comedy. It’s a romance. It’s a story about a guy and his grandpa. This movie is everything. Its tone oscillates wildly from scene to scene, presenting a shocking death before jumping right into goofy comedy. Some might say that’s a problem, but not me. It’s a feature, not a bug. I love a movie that boldly proclaims: maybe injustice and having a date with Christine Lahti and almost crashing a helicopter can coexist. Frankly, Joy could never.

First off, the cast. Al Pacino, Christine Lahti (a thrill to see her in any movie!), Jack Warden (The Great Muppet Caper heads know), Jeffrey Tambor (young, with hair at least for a little while), a guy from The Thing, and a young Craig T. Nelson. I didn’t even know Craig T. Nelson was ever young. I thought he was born as Coach from the sitcom Coach. This is essentially a film full of character actors.

Al Pacino is a criminal defense lawyer who just wants to do what’s right. But he’s working in a corrupt system, and the movie’s larger point is about exposing what’s wrong with the system. It reminded me of the Riz Ahmed/John Turturro limited series The Night Of, which Hollis and I inexplicably watched when our son was an infant (it was way too dark for me to be watching in that headspace).

But it’s also about: eating a lot of egg rolls. Jack Warden and Al Pacino on a comical, stressful helicopter flight. Jeffrey Tambor having a mental breakdown and throwing a bunch of plates at people. Al Pacino wearing glasses. Al Pacino wearing a suit. Al Pacino with his fluffy hair. Al Pacino in bed working on his…legal stuff? I don’t know, I was thrown for a loop by the realization that Al Pacino was so hot in this. I was like, “wow, do you think this is the hottest he ever was?” and Hollis was like, “um…I guess so?” as he worked on a Lego. He didn’t care. But I did.

Fair warning that this movie is very upsetting. Calling it a comedy seems deliberately misleading because it’s pretty stressful and horrifying at times. Sometimes I had to put my hands over my face because I was so anxious about what was happening. But I loved every second of it. The score was super funky (imagine: nonstop saxophone) and the film ended on a wacky freeze frame. It’s the perfect image for that *record scratch* Yep, that’s me. I bet you’re wondering how I got here meme.

Afterwards I wanted to know everything about this movie and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The best feeling! Thank you to And Justice for All for getting me out of my movie slump. RIP Norman Jewison. And hello to my Al Pacino phase.

Also this wasn’t streaming for free on any of our services, so I checked out this very barebones (and fullscreen) DVD from the library. One terrific movie, indeed. Never has a cover prepared you so little for what you’re about to experience.

That’s it for this week. I know this was, in the parlance of my youth, ~*so random*~, but I just had a lot to say about two specific movies. And, much like those movies, maybe nothing really related and I crammed too many stories into one vessel. But I drank one matcha and I had thoughts, and if that isn’t the overarching theme of this newsletter then I don’t know what is.

Next week I turn 38, so I’m going to be sharing a post that’s 38 things I’ve learned about writing (but mostly publishing). That is, if I can make it to 38 things. It might end up being, like, 29 things I’ve learned and we’ll just have to deal with it. See you soon. Please watch Joy and And Justice for All and let me know what you think. xo